Flames winger Tim Jackman will play his former team for the first time tonight and he's looking forward to squaring off against some familiar faces.

"It's a little different being over here," he acknowledged. "I've never been in this locker room before. It'll be different tonight."

Jackman played 159 games for the Islanders during his three years with the organization so his time in New York has been filled with a lot of catching up with old friends.

"I still know a lot of people that work here and a lot of the players I played with so it's fun to come back and see everybody."

Given there are still quite a few players with the Islanders that played with Jackman during his tenure in New York, one may think he may have passed on a few scouting reports to his teammates.

That hasn't been the case.

"No," he chuckled. "Our coaches do a lot of scouting and they watch a lot of tape. No one asked me too many questions."

ISLANDERS LOOK TO STOP THE BLEEDING, CHANGE THEIR TOP LINE

The Islanders head into tonight's game with just three wins in their last 10 games and they've dropped their last three games, being outscored by a 12-5 margin.

Their coaching staff felt change was necessary so tonight Kyle Okposo will play on the top line with John Tavares and Matt Moulson.

"I've played with them before, a couple years ago, and we had some success," Okposo said after the Islanders practice. "We're just going to go out there and try to have a good game tonight."

Okposo firmly believes the team needs to get back to the basics rather than trying to force things on the ice. He said the team will see their offensive numbers pick up once they work on small components of their game.

"We've just got to work harder. We've got to put pucks in smart areas, respect the lines a little bit more and just play with a little bit more jam.

"I think that it's something that has been missing in our game - those second and third efforts."

QUOTABLE

"We've been playing good hockey as a team as of late and that's all that matters." - Tim Jackman